As interest in the atmospheric environment increases with improvements of quality of life, rules regulating the emission of air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) generated in various industrial processes, coating facilities, sewage disposal plants, or incineration plants have been revised. Strong administrative measures such as suspension of business have been imposed on companies violating such rules. Therefore, much research has been conducted on removing such volatile organic compounds.
Representative conventional technology for removing volatile organic compounds includes an adsorption tower system using activated carbon, an evaporation system, a regenerative catalytic oxidation (RCO) system, and a regenerative thermal oxidation (RTO) system. However, the use of an adsorption tower causes an increase in maintenance cost due to a demand for its periodic exchange. Also, the evaporation system and the RCO and RTO systems have a problem of low energy efficiency.
To solve the above prior-art problems, technology for removing volatile organic compounds using microwaves has been developed. Specifically, the technology of removing volatile organic compounds using microwaves includes adsorbing volatile organic compounds onto an adsorbent and removing the volatile organic compounds by desorbing volatile organic compounds from the adsorbent. In this case, the adsorbent may be semi-permanently used since the adsorbent may be regenerated by means of the adsorption and desorption. To maximize the efficiency of such technology of removing volatile organic compounds using microwaves, adsorbents having high adsorptive strength to the organic compounds that are targets of removal and a high ability to absorb microwaves are required.
Meanwhile, the energy issue problems have emerged as a pressing matter all over the world as the demand for energy rapidly increases every year and the importance of technology requiring a large quantity of energy is being emphasized at the same time. Particularly, a rotor-type dehumidification system used in semiconductor and LCD processes is representative technology in which a large quantity of energy is consumed. To solve such energy-related problems, development of an energy-saving dehumidification system capable of enhancing energy efficiency using microwaves has been attempted. In the case of such a dehumidification system using microwaves, there is also a need for development of adsorbents which have both excellent adsorptive strength to moisture and an excellent ability to absorb microwaves with which the adsorbents are irradiated to be regenerated, thereby further improving the energy efficiency.